Esposito, 37, announced the series at the ongoing SpencerHill Festival at Gubbio in Umbria, dedicated each year to Spencer and his equally two-fisted double act partner Terence Hill, best known for the Trinity movies – They Call Me Trinity (1970) and Trinity Is Still My Name (1971)).

“I’m happy to pay him homage and my desire is to make him known to young people, the new generations, because it’s now been over 50 years (since the first Flatfoot film in 1973),” self-confessed Spencer fan Esposito said.

“I hope the fans like the series.”

Terence Hill (whose real name is Mario Girotti) and Spencer (originally Carlo Pedersoli) made numerous action-comedy and ‘Spaghetti Western’ films together, garnering world acclaim and attracting millions to cinemas.

While Hill’s characters were agile and youthful, Spencer always played the “phlegmatic, grumpy strong-arm man with a blessed, naive child’s laughter and a golden heart”.

Their first movie as a duo was God Forgives... I Don’t! in 1967.

Bud Spencer and Terence Hill made numerous action-comedy and Spaghetti Westerns together, garnering world acclaim and attracting millions to cinemas. (Photo: Wikipedia Commons)

Peter Martell, another Western favourite, was originally chosen as the leading actor opposite Spencer, but as fate would have it, the day before the first shoot, Martell broke his foot and was replaced by Hill.

The film director asked the pair to change their real names, declaring them to be too Italian-sounding for a Western movie.

At that time cast and crew in Spaghetti Westerns frequently adopted American names to give the film a better chance of selling in non-Italian speaking countries.

Flatfoot, also known as The Knockout Cop, was followed by three other films featuring the rowdy character, Flatfoot in Hong Kong (1975), Flatfoot in Africa (1978) and Flatfoot in Egypt (1980), which all have a cult following in Italy and abroad.

During filming in South Africa for Flatfoot in Africa, there was an incident when Spencer wanted to dine in a restaurant in Johannesburg with young co-star Baldwyn Dakile, a black child actor who played the character of Bodo.

After the local boy was denied entry, due to apartheid, Spencer in protest declined to eat in the restaurant.

He was later informed by the city’s chief of police that if the behaviour was repeated in the future, he would be expelled from the country.

While the burly former champion swimmer sadly died at the age of 88 in 2016, Hill, 84, is still going strong in film and TV.

ANSA & Wikipedia